Chapter 5
Part 1
Course Goals
1.
2.
3.
4.
Application Skills (lab)
Computer-ese (terms)
How computers work (hardware)
History of Computing (ch. 5)
Early Computing
Vacuum Tubes

Light Bulb Sized
ENIAC

Considered by some to be the
world's first electronic digital
computer
Colossus, 1944, England





Electronic Numerical
Integrator And Computer
1945-6
~20,000 vacuum tubes
The size of a room
Developed to compute artillery
firing tables in WW2
ENIAC
Links
ENIAC

http://ftp.arl.mil/~mike/comphist/eniacstory.html
Vacuum Tubes / Transistors

http://www.lucent.com/minds/transistor/history.
html
Terms
Transistor – tiny electronic switch that can
rapidly turn “on” and “off”
Integrated Circuit – an entire electrical
circuit, including wires, formed on a single
chip
Solid State – hardware in which electrons
travel through a solid material (i.e. silicon)
Terms
Semiconductor – any material whose
electrical properties are intermediate in
terms of conductivity
ASCII – American Standard Code for
Information Interchange (I won’t ask you
that) – binary code used to store
characters (8 bit code)
Making Processors
1. Make a Circuit Diagram
2. Duplicate diagram many times
3. Print and etch sheet of diagrams onto
slice of silicon (photolithography)
4. Repeat 3 for each layer in processor
5. Cut wafer into chips
6. Test and mount chips
Great article on this:
http://www.embedded.com
/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=17501489
Processors
Larger wafer radius produces more chips




4” – 12 20 mm x 20mm chips
6” – 24 chips
8” – 57 chips
12” - 148
Microprocessor – The miniaturized
circuitry of a computer processor (the part
that processes information) – makes
embedded systems possible
Power Supply
Surge Protector – protects against spikes
of high voltage (can burn out)
Voltage Regulator – protects against
spikes of low power (not very common)
UPS – Uninterruptible Power Supply –
basically an emergency battery
Comparison - 1998
Intel P II 300 Mhz
64 MB 100 MHz DRAM
2D PCI 4MB Graphics
4 GB ATA 5600 RPM HD
15” .28dp Monitor (13.5” visible)
Comparison - 2001
Intel P III 733 Mhz
128 MB 133 MHz SDRAM
3D AGP 8MB Graphics
40 GB Ultra ATA 7200 RPM HD
17” .25dp Monitor (16” visible)
Comparison - 2003
Intel P IIII 1.8 GHz
256 MB 266 MHz DDR RAM
3D AGP 64MB DDR Graphics
80 GB Ultra ATA 7200 RPM HD
19” .22dp Monitor (17.5” visible)
Comparison - 2005
Intel Pentium 4 2.80GHz
512MB 400 MHz DDR RAM
3D PCI Express 128MB DDR Graphics
120 GB Ultra ATA 7200 RPM HD
17 in (16.0 in viewable) Flat Panel Display